On Sunday, 32-year-old Firoz Khan woke up to flames engulfing the room where he was sleeping along with his fellow workers in a building in Anaj Mandi.
Firoz, who is among the survivors of the deadly fire that killed 43 people, said he was sleeping near the door and managed to escape along with a few others after alerting the inmates about the blaze.
Firoz worked at a cap-manufacturing unit on the third floor. He said: “When I woke up, I saw flames in the room in which we were sleeping. The door was around six metres away from me. I alerted the other workers sleeping near me and four or five of us rushed out through the door.”
He said that many of those sleeping at a distance from the door were trapped in the fire and he does not know whether they survived.
The inmates had to struggle to escape as the exit routes were partially blocked and several windows were found sealed, according to rescuers.
Police and fire department officials said most of the fatalities occurred because of suffocation as many people were sleeping when the fire started around 5am on the second floor of the building that did not have fire-safety clearance.
Nearly 150 firefighters worked to pull out 63 people from the building. While 43 labourers died, many others were injured, they said.
Mohammad Asif said his cousins Imran, 32, and Ikram, 35, who worked in a factory that manufactured carry bags, were injured in the fire.
Imran and Ikram are from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. “I live in Bhajanpura. I got a call from Moradabad around 6am that my cousins had been injured. I rushed to Anaj Mandi but couldn’t find them. The police told us they were taken to hospital, which hospital I don’t know. We looked for them here (LNJP), but were not able to confirm if they had been brought here,” he said.
There were other distraught people too searching for their loved ones in hospitals.
“My brother Naveen, 18, works in a handbag manufacturing unit in Anaj Mandi. I got a call from his friends informing me that he had suffered injuries in the fire. I have no clue which hospital he has been taken to,” Manoj said.
